1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bubble-jetting member and protein-adsorbing-bubble-jetting member for a protein crystal device, a protein crystal device and method for crystallizing protein, and a protein crystal-cutting device and method for cutting protein crystal, and particularly relates to a bubble-jetting member and protein-adsorbing-bubble-jetting member for a protein crystal device that are capable of jetting bubbles from a bubble-jetting port in the bubble-jetting member or jetting bubbles in which protein has been adsorbed at a boundary from the protein-adsorbing-bubble-jetting port in the protein-adsorbing-bubble-jetting member to readily generate protein crystal, a protein crystal device including the bubble-jetting member or protein-adsorbing-bubble-jetting member, and a method for crystallizing protein crystal using the protein crystal device. The present invention furthermore relates to a protein crystal-cutting device and method for cutting protein crystal in order to cut the corners of angular protein crystal or otherwise cut and shape protein crystals for use in X-ray structural analysis or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A structural analysis of protein crystal is indispensable in order to discover the structure and function of protein crystal. The most common technique for analyzing the structure of protein crystal is X-ray structural analysis, but a good-quality single crystal of protein must be obtained in order to analyze the three-dimensional crystal structure of protein by X-ray structural analysis.
Vapor diffusion, precipitation, and other conventional methods are known as methods for generating crystals for X-ray structural analysis of protein. However, vapor diffusion has a problem in that several weeks are required to crystallize protein and the method is time consuming. The time required in precipitation is about one week to crystallize protein and a precipitant is used; and there is therefore a problem in that the precipitant becomes an impurity and the purity of the protein crystal is reduced.
There is a known method (see Patent Document 1) for solving the above-described problem that does not require a precipitant, the method comprising a solvent-mixing step for mixing a protein containing non-crystalline protein and a smaller amount of solvent than the amount that corresponds to the saturated solubility of the protein, a resting step for resting the protein, and a stimulation-imparting step for imparting agitation, ultrasonic waves, electromagnetic waves, or other stimulation. However, the method described in Patent Document 1 has a problem in that a step for resting the protein is required and crystallization is as time-consuming as before.
A method for crystallizing protein by stimulating a solution in which protein has been dissolved (which may hereinafter be referred to as “protein solution”) is also known in which a picosecond pulse laser or a femtosecond pulse laser is emitted at a protein solution (see Patent Document 2). However, there are problems in that the device for irradiating the laser is large and costly, optical equipment for irradiating the laser onto the protein solution is required, and focusing and other operations are laborious. With the method described in Patent Document 2, it is thought that an explosive phenomenon (laser ablation) occurs due to rapid light absorption at the focal point when a pulse laser is focused, the solution near the focal point suddenly evaporates, and crystal nucleus is generated due to a concentration of the solution. However, heat rapidly increases at the focal point and the protein is liable to be modified.
The corners of the resulting protein crystals are preferably removed or the protein crystals are otherwise processed into a different shape in order to analyze the three-dimensional crystal structure of protein by X-ray structural analysis, and cutting a protein crystal with a femtosecond laser is a known technique (see Non-patent Document 1). However, cutting a protein crystal using a femtosecond laser involves local high-density energy, and the protein at the cutting face of the protein crystal is liable to be modified.    [Patent Document 1] JP (Kokai) 2004-277255    [Patent Document 2] WO 2004/018744